Gay Day at Gitche Gumee Beach - May 28, 2011

International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia

Today is International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. Here is a link about it that shows how you can be involved. LINK: http://www.homophobiaday.org/

Y.G.C.A. - Coming Soon to a Town Near You!

We're taking the show on the road and we will be showing up in a town near you soon! Keep watching this blog for more details about when, where and etc. The Y.G.C.A. is a regional organization and is committed to find GLBTQIs who want to be involved throughout the entire Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We want everyone in every county to have a chance to be involved in some way or another, so stay tuned!

Casting Call for Y.G.C.A. TV Commercial

The Y.G.C.A. is seeking a person or persons to speak about the organization on a television commerical. We are also seeking a group of people to represent the organization standing in the background behind the person or persons speaking. This is strictly voluntary work for our non-profit organization. You must be at least 18 to participate. Please email: YGCAlliance@gmail.com if you are interested in attending an audition.

Y.G.C.A. Activities

Community involvement can be fun! It doesn't always have to be boring meetings in a library! So let's get out and get involved with the Y.G.C.A. in some form or fashion and let's get this party started! YeeeHaw! Tell your friends to come along and join us because the more the merrier and we can never have too much support!
Here is a list of activities. Please tell us which of these activities you would be interested in attending and how we can reach you to let you know about it:
1. Y.G.C.A. General Board Meetings
2. U.P. Gay Pride Planning - Sub committees include: Technical lighting and sound, entertainment, fundraising, decorating, security, public relations and advertising and sponsorships.
3. Gay Day on the Beach -(See photo above.)
4. Gay Night at the Casino
5. Sunday Brunch Bunch
6. Dining Out Club
7. Bar Hopping Flash Mobsters
8. Camping Out Together
9. Out Hiking, Climbing, Birdwatching
10. 4-Wheeler Club
11. Snowmobile Club
12. Cross Country Ski Club
13. Horseshoe
14. Cards or Board Games
15. House Parties
16. Homecoming Party - Sub Committees: Entertainment, Fundraising, Food , Decorating, Clean Up and Security.
17. Bakesales to raise money for the Y.G.C.A.
18. Decorating a Float for July 4th Parade in Marquette.
19. Transgender Club
20. Drag Queens United
21. Intersexed
22. HIV/AIDS
23. Movie Club and Film Festival
24. Activism and Political Interests
25. Bowling
26. Exersise Club
27. Motorcycle Club
28. Softball
29. Volleyball
30. Adopt a Highway Clean Up Crew
31. Volunteer at Nursing Homes
32. Community Outreach Area Representatives
33. Gay/Straight Alliances in Local Schools
34. Church Outreach
You can comment below or email us at: YGCAlliance@GMail.com or find us on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=709403424#!/pages/Yooper-Gay-Community-Alliance-YGCA/133735946688376 or at Yoopergay.net  http://yoopergay.ning.com/profile/YooperGayCommunityAlliance

Join The Yooper Gay Community Alliance (Y.G.C.A.)

Join the Yooper Gay Community Alliance (Y.G.C.A.) and see where you fit in! Let your organization affiliate with ours! Together we can do so much, alone so little! The Y.G.C.A. is a U.P. regional non-profit gay/straight alliance and needs representatives from each county and town or area in the whole upper peninsula. So if you want to know what you can do to be involved, just contact us at: ygcalliance@gmail.com or leave a comment on our facebook or this blog. We want to hear from you about your ideas, and how we can reach people in your area of the U.P... so don't be shy, speak up and become a part of this puzzle!

Patti LaBelle Sings "You'll Never Walk Alone"

"Walk on with hope in your heart, and you'll never walk alone."

Buy Your 2011 U.P. Pride Merchandise Here!

Get your 2011 U.P. Gay Pride merchandise here: www.zazzle.com/ygcastore
All proceeds go to the Yooper Gay Community Alliance (Y.G.C.A.) and local G.L.B.T. events and causes.

Get Your 2011 U.P. Gay Pride Merchandise at New Online Store!

Shop for your 2011 Gay Pride merchandise at our new online store called the Y.G.C.A. Store! T-shirts and other clothing will be coming available within the next couple of days. Keep checking back for new items! All money goes to help the Y.G.C.A. raise funds to spend in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on GLBTQI events and activities. The Yooper Gay Community Alliance (Y.G.C.A.) is a non-profit straight/gay alliance serving the entire U.P.
Here is the link for the store: http://www.zazzle.com/ygcastore

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! -- A group of us are getting together ("Dutch") at the Bonanza Family Restaurant in Marquette tonight at 8 pm until 9 pm if you'd like to join us! This is not an "official" event nor is it sponsored by the Bonanza restaurant, but it is more of a "show up" at the same time and place, "flash-mob" type of event.
Look for rainbow colors and a pink rose bush at the host table. Enter a drawing to win the rose bush.
And by the way..this event is a Buy Your Own Dinner or B.Y.O.D. affair.

www.Yoopergay.net - FREE Online Social Network

www.Yoopergay.net - An online social network that aims to be a safe place for GLBT yoopers and their straight allies to meet and mingle for FREE. Here you can chat, post photos and videos, and create groups and discussions, and post events!
This is open to the general public and is definately not R or X rated. It is moderated by "Gay Yooper" and any nudity, profanity or hate will not be tolerated.
All supporters of the LGBT community are welcome, and you can even use a "nickname" if you prefer anonymity.
GLBT organizations serving in the Upper Peninsula are encoraged to join! You can post your events on the "Event Calendar" for FREE and reach a large segement of the U.P. all at once!

Y.G.C.A.'s Private Yahoo Group

The Yooper Gay Community Alliance (YGCA) now has a private Yahoo group at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/YGCAlliance/
We want everyone to feel comfortable in joining us here so that we might have a chance to get feedback from those who may wish to remain more anonymous. For the Y.G.C.A. to be successful, we need to reach as many supporters as possible, and we realize that it isn't always an option to be a member of a public forum such as our Facebook page at:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Yooper-Gay-Community-Alliance-YGCA/133735946688376
So that is why we created this blog and also the above mentioned "private" and "moderated" Yahoo group.

We also have a "private", "members only" goup on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_217968071563215&ap=1

Liza Minnelli Sings "The Man I Love"

For your enjoyment: Liza Minnelli singing the hit song 'The Man I Love' from the Martin Scorsese musical "New York, New York".

Homosexuals in the Holocaust

I came across this video at this blog: Rebecca's Forces Blog - Here is the link: http://rebeccaforce.wordpress.com/2010/03/30/the-pink-triangle-love-at-all-angles/
Did you know?...Homosexual holocaust prisoners were not acknowledged as victims of Nazi persecution. Reparations and state pensions that were available to other groups were refused to gay men, who were still classified as criminals; The law wasn't repealed until 1994.
Martin Niemöller (1892-1984) was an ardent nationalist and prominent Protestant pastor who emerged as an outspoken public foe of Adolf Hitler and spent the last 7 years of Nazi rule in concentration camps.
Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for the quotation:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me -- and there was no one left to speak for me.
The quotation stems from Niemöller's lectures during the early postwar period. Different versions of the quotation exist.
Here is my version:
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Black Man, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Black Man.
Then they came for the Atheists, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not an Atheist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Muslims and I did not speak out --
Because I was not Islamic.
And then they came after the Homosexuals, and still I did not speak out --
Because I was not a Homosexual.
When they next came after me...there was nobody left to save me.

The Story Behind The Pink Triangle

I stumbled across a blog called Bob Out and there was a good article about how the pink triangle became a symbol of homosexuals. Here is the link: http://bobout.blogspot.com/2010/10/thats-so-gay-pink-triangle.html

"Dear Mama" - From "Tales from the City" by Armistead Maupin

Dear Mama,

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to write. Every time I try to write to you and Papa I realize I'm not saying the things that are in my heart. That would be O.K., if I loved you any less than I do, but you are still my parents and I am still your child.

I have friends who think I'm foolish to write this letter. I hope they're wrong. I hope their doubts are based on parents who loved and trusted them less than mine do. I hope especially that you'll see this as an act of love on my part, a sign of my continuing need to share my life you.

I wouldn't have written, I guess, if you hadn't told me about your involvement in the Save Our Children campaign. That, more than anything, made it clear that my responsibility was to tell you the truth, that your own child is homosexual, and that I never needed saving from anything except the cruel and ignorant piety of people like Anita Bryant.

I'm sorry, Mama. Not for what I am, but for how you must feel at this moment. I know what that feeling is, for I felt it for most of my life. Revulsion, shame, disbelief--rejection through fear of something I knew, even as a child, was as basic to my nature as the color of my eyes.

No, Mama, I wasn't "recruited." No seasoned homosexual ever served as my mentor. But you know what? I wish someone had. I wish someone older than me and wiser than the people in Orlando had taken me aside and said, "You're all right, kid. You can grow up to be a doctor or a teacher just like anyone else. You're not crazy or sick or evil. You can succeed and be happy and find peace with friends--all kinds of friends--who don't give a damn who you go to bed with. Most of all, though, you can love and be loved, without hating yourself for it."

But no one ever said that to me, Mama. I had to find out on my own, with the help of the city that has become my home. I know this may be hard for you to believe, but San Francisco is full of men and women, both straight and gay, who don't consider sexuality in measuring the worth of another human being.

These aren't radicals or weirdos, Mama. They are shop clerks and bankers and little old ladies and people who nod and smile to you when you meet them on the bus. Their attitude is neither patronizing nor pitying. And their message is so simple: Yes, you are a person. Yes, I like you. Yes, it's all right for you to like me too.

I know what you must be thinking now. You're asking yourself: What did we do wrong? How did we let this happen? Which one of us made him that way?

I can't answer that, Mama. In the long run, I guess I really don't care. All I know is this: If you and Papa are responsible for the way I am, then I thank you with all my heart, for it's the light and the joy of my life.

I know I can't tell you what it is to be gay. But I can tell you what it's not.

It's not hiding behind words, Mama. Like family and decency and Christianity. It's not fearing your body, or the pleasures that God made for it. It's not judging your neighbor, except when he's crass or unkind.

Being gay has taught me tolerance, compassion, and humility. It has shown me the limitless possibilities of living. It has given me people whose passion and kindness and sensitivity have provided a constant source of strength. It has brought me into the family of man, Mama, and I like it here. I like it.

There's not much else I can say, except that I'm the same Michael you've always known. You just know me better now. I have never consciously done anything to hurt you. I never will.

Please don't feel you have to answer this right away. It's enough for me to know that I no longer have to lie to the people who taught me to value the truth.

Mary Ann sends her love.

Everything is fine at 28 Barbary Lane.

Your loving son,

Michael

Word of Mouth Advertising Works!

Please be sure to tell all your friends, relatives and gay rights supporters about this new organization! You can also find us on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Yooper-Gay-Community-Alliance-YGCA/133735946688376 and on Yahoo Groups at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/YGCAlliance/
and at http://www.yoopergay.net/ - and you can even be anonymous on this social network!